Questions of origin matter. No, this is not talking about Douglas Adams and the question of life, the universe, and everything, but something more mundane yet more relevant to day-to-day life. Country of origin questions are at the heart of the trade negotiations between Canada, the U.S., and Mexico, and Canadian farmers and processors may become collateral damage if we don’t pay attention.
Where did the parts to make a new car really come from? Did the steel and aluminum originate in North America or were they imported from a third country? Where did the meat in the grocery aisle originate? Did it come from jurisdictions with regulatory systems that I trust or from someplace else? Who grew my food?
Canada and the U.S. have a history of disputes involving food labelling. In 2009, the U.S. activated a law requiring mandatory country of origin labelling for red meat products. The regulations stipulated that retailers needed to identify where the animals were born, raised, and processed. Processors were required to segregate animals that were born or raised in Canada, which disrupted the integrated North American markets for both pork and beef. Consumers faced increased prices at the grocery stores as the cost of segregation, at least in part, was passed on to them. Hog farmers and beef producers lost income. Canada and Mexico took the case to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and ultimately won that six-year process, however, this did not deter those advocating for country-of-origin labelling. Origin labelling for meat is back on the table, and because the WTO’s dispute process is broken, another challenge of U.S. legislation will not save our bacon this time.
There are two separate examples of the return of the origin debate in food. On January 1st of this year, new U.S. regulations came into effect that significantly tightened the rules behind the voluntary “Product of the U.S.A.” label. Manitoba’s hog farmers are watching the response from U.S. retailers closely. If retailers want to use the “Product of the U.S.A.” label, their suppliers will need to eliminate purchases of pigs born in Manitoba. What will this mean for the approximately three million weanlings that Manitoba sells into the U.S. every year?
The second example relates to the U.S. Farm Bill. On August 6th, the U.S. Senate’s Agriculture Committee voted to incorporate mandatory origin labelling for beef into the U.S. Farm Bill. We would be naive to think that the push for mandatory labelling will stop at beef.
Legislators are responding to consumers who want to know where their food comes from. Farmers and processors should acknowledge the desire of many consumers for transparent information on questions of origin. These questions are not going away, and it is best for farmers across North America if all the sectors of animal agriculture work together to answer them. If we don’t answer these questions then governments will regulate how they are addressed and that will inevitably harm our ability to deliver nutritious, safe, and affordable food.
To start we need to clearly communicate that when it comes to food safety and the security of supply, animals raised in Canada are not much different from animals raised in the U.S. We have similar regulations on farm inputs, like veterinary drugs. We have compatible food safety standards. Canadian and U.S. farmers have comparable production practices. When U.S. consumers indicate that they would prefer not to buy foreign born meat, they are generally not including Canada in their definition of “foreign.”
Farmers across North America must work together to demonstrate the value of our integrated market for agricultural products and food. Because of this integration, consumers have greater choice. Disrupting integrated North American markets will increase retail prices. The integration of North American value chains increases the security of our food supply, which is especially important during times of geopolitical uncertainty.
How do we accomplish the seemingly conflicting goals of protecting the integrated North American market for food while providing consumers answers to questions of origin? One solution is the development of a product of North America label or product of Canada and the U.S. label. Consumers would be assured that the meat they are purchasing was derived from animals that were born, raised, and processed by Canadian and U.S. farmers who follow the regulatory standards that have the confidence of consumers.
A Canada – U.S., label will require farmers, processors, and governments on both sides of the border to agree on the label requirements, auditing processes, and enforcement. This is no small task, and it will take some work to get ranchers in Texas to agree with hog farmers in Manitoba, but the undertaking is not impossible. The renegotiation of the Canada – U.S. – Mexico agreement presents a clear opportunity to move forward with this solution, but governments will not move first. Leadership first needs to come from within farm organizations and processors.